WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM.

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A.D. 1324-1404.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

A.D. 1100-1400.

Church Architecture is the only addition which the
Middle Ages made to Art; but even this fact is remarkable
when we consider the barbarism and ignorance of the
Teutonic nations in those dark and gloomy times.
It is difficult to conceive how it could have arisen,
except from the stimulus of religious ideas and sentiments,—­like
the vast temples of the Egyptians. The artists
who built the hoary and attractive cathedrals and
abbey churches which we so much admire are unknown
men to us, and yet they were great benefactors.
It is probable that they were practical and working
architects, like those who built the temples of Greece,
who quietly sought to accomplish their ends,—­not
to make pictures, but to make buildings,—­as
economically as they could consistently with the end
proposed, which end they always had in view.

In this Lecture I shall not go back to classic antiquity,
nor shall I undertake to enter upon any disquisition
on Art itself, but simply present the historical developments
of the Church architecture of the Middle Ages.
It is a technical and complicated subject, but I shall
try to make myself understood. It suggests, however,
great ideas and national developments, and ought to
be interesting.

The Romans added nothing to the architecture of the
Greeks except the arch, and the use of brick and small
stones for the materials of their stupendous structures.
Now Christianity and the Middle Ages seized the arch
and the materials of the Roman architects, and gradually
formed from these a new style of architecture.
In Roman architecture there was no symbolism, no poetry,
nothing to represent consecrated sentiments. It
was mundane in its ideas and ends; everything was for
utility. The grandest efforts of the Romans were
feats of engineering skill, rather than creations
inspired by the love of the beautiful. What was
beautiful in their edifices was borrowed from the
Greeks; what was original was intended to accommodate
great multitudes, whether they sought the sports of
the amphitheatre or the luxury of the bath. Their
temples were small, comparatively, and were Grecian.